Presents!

The last few days have been filled with presents. It started out on Christmas morning. Allyson and Lauren particularly made quite a haul. Santa (i.e. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Papa) spoiled them rotten. The biggest hit was the toy grocery carts. They got one for each of them, but Allyson still freaks out if Lauren even goes near hers. Allyson seems to like the Tinkerbell suitcase we got for her, and Lauren likes the stuffed dalmation puppy we got her (Allyson likes that, too). It's funny to watch the two of them. If Lauren goes near Allyson's stuff, Allyson freaks out, but if she plays with Lauren's stuff, that's okay. Right now I guess Lauren's too young to care what's hers and what's not. Perhaps in not too much longer they'll both freak out when the other touches her stuff. What fun!

The presents we got for people all seemed to be well-received. Mom was surprised by the scarf I knit for her, but really liked it. The biggest surprise for her was the nice leather jacket Dad got for her.


Yesterday, she wore both of these presents together.

















I also knit a scarf for my sister-in-law, Amy. It turned out really pretty, though not as long as I would've liked. It still works as a scarf, it's just a bit on the short side. Amy was sitting on the other side of the room from me when I took this picture, so it actually shows the whole family, which is kind of fun.



Justin is wearing the hat that I made for him. He liked it and wore it the rest of the morning while we opened presents. I also made a hat for my father-in-law, Mike. I'd made him one a couple years ago, but this one is much nicer. Also, while I'm not a big fan of the color, he really likes it. The last present I made for anyone was the vest I made for Donna, my mother-in-law. She knew I was making it, but I wouldn't let her see it until it was all done. Unfortunately the pictures I took on Christmas morning of her with it on were all blurry, but I did take a few pictures of it sitting on a table, and those turned out pretty well.
The pattern for the vest is one I came up with myself. I'm pretty proud of it because it looks nice, and it actually fits Donna.

These were all of my knitted presents for the year. The last two, Mike's hat and Donna's vest, were both done kind of last minute. Donna's vest was last minute because I was busy and didn't have time to start it until two weeks before Christmas. I actually finished it on Christmas Eve. Not bad, especially for making it up as I went. The nice thing about Donna knowing about it, is that it wasn't weird for me to constantly ask to measure her. And that made it so I could get it to fit her the way she wanted. She's thrilled, and said she was going to wear it to work today. I got a bunch of stuff, too, that I had asked for and a few things I didn't ask for. Michael got a new Garmin GPS from my parents and we've been playing with that the last couple of days. I got some yarn, hiking boots, a Longaberger basket, and a few smaller things. It was definitely a good Christmas.